


Chasing Fireflies

by Ahhuya



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood, Character Death, Injury, M/M, Mentions of Other Voltron Paladins, Sheith Angst Week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 15:26:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15844098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahhuya/pseuds/Ahhuya
Summary: A Marmora's blade is connected to its owner's life force. But when a knife has two owners, whose life is it you're desperately chasing?





	Chasing Fireflies

**Author's Note:**

> Today was really busy so I didn't really check for any other mistakes...  
> Anyways, I tried to write more for angstweek, but this week (and those before it) were really busy and I could only finish this one. This is for day 5 (sacrifice) // **Almost**

The blade flickers. The purple pulses can almost be timed with Shiro’s heartbeat when he gets it back under control again. He knows that a flickering blade can only mean one thing, Keith is alive. Somewhere, underneath all that rubble, buried under a thick layer of Galra base, Keith is waiting for him.  

It wasn’t supposed to go like this. But then again, things never go the way the paladins want them to go. They had only been exploring an abandoned base. In the end it was only relatively abandoned. The Galra were no longer present in person, but they had been prepared for visitors.

The team split up in four groups. Hunk, Romelle and Coran took the east wing where a possible factory was located. Keith and Krolia took the lower levels in a search for prisoners that could have been left behind. Lance, Allura and Kosmo stayed near the entrance and too the central control panel, where they would be able to provide backup for any team in need. Lance had been clear to claim the wolf for himself, despite Keith telling him he didn’t need it. Now, Shiro wishes Kosmo had gone with their owner instead. Maybe then, just maybe, he wouldn’t be in this situation.

Shiro and Pidge had taken the west wing of the building, where the databases were located.  They all had one varga to get all the information they needed before they would have to move again. It would give the lions enough time to recharge a little without being picked up by Galra scanners.

“Shiro,” Keith called out when the teams had officially been made, “I want you to take this.” He held out his Marmoran blade.

“Shouldn’t you have this, or Krolia?” Shiro asked as he hesitantly reached out to take the knife.

Keith shook his head. “I have my bayard and Krolia has her gun. We’ll be fine, we have been before. But you don’t have your arm anymore and no matter how much I want to believe Pidge can keep you safe, I want to make sure I’ve protected you as well. Just take it and give it back to me afterwards.”

Shiro had taken the knife with him when they split up. The luxite laid clumsily in his left hand. He wasn’t any good with knives or swords, despite the fact that his clone had once used one with much joy.

A part of him hates that he took the knife when the first explosives go off. As the floor caves in, the walls collapse and ceiling starts to crack, Shiro knows that Keith needs the knife more than Shiro ever will. But now, a few dobashes later has Shiro running through the debris with the biggest gratitude to the knife. A Blade member’s life force is connected to their blade. Krolia had explained it during one of the many stops on their road trip. It was how Keith could use the knife, their quintessence was almost the exact same. Right now it is all Shiro can tell himself. Keith is okay and waiting for rescue.

He rushes back to the main hall, where most of the Paladins have already returned. In a flash of light Lance and Allura return from a bit further down the hall, where the entire structure has collapsed. Only Keith and Krolia are still missing.

Shiro tells the others to stay behind before he grabs on to Kosmo’s fur. “We need to find him.” He says to the wolf. Him, just him. Because if anything, Shiro is sure Krolia is fine. She has always been before she joined Voltron, before she ever came to Earth. Though Shiro knows Keith doesn’t want to lose her again, they could go on without the Galra woman. But Shiro knows he can’t go on without the half Galra who changed his life.

The central hall makes room for a more open space. The lower levels look a lot worse. Most bombs must have been placed there in order to bring the entire base down in one go Shiro realizes. Bits and pieces of ceiling fall to the ground. Those that land on Shiro’s helmet bounce of immediately. It’s nothing big, definitely not enough to make Shiro stop running through the building.

With every door he passes, the chaos gets worse. Entire sections have caved in, leaving multiple hallways unreachable. The knife in his hand glows softly, guiding Shiro into a different path. Kosmo’s paws sound against the cold floor, but Shiro doesn’t want to grab their fur again. The teleportation is great, but as much as he trusts the wolf’s sense of interdimensional ways, he wants to be the person to find Keith. On his own.

With Kosmo following his every step, Shiro gets himself to the room the blade was guiding him to. Inside, two figures lay on the floor. Krolia is down by the door, but Shiro immediately feels himself run to Keith, who is located in the middle, instead. The man is face down on the floor, laying in a puddle of what Shiro is sure is his own blood. A part of the ceiling is right next to him. His helmet is on the floor, the cracks and dents so big that Shiro tries to unsee them. Something inside Shiro wants to try and accept the scene in front of him. Everything else lets him look at the knife in his hand, giving another soft glow to tell him everything will be okay.

The knife only feeds him lies. The neck underneath Shiro’s fingertips doesn’t give a pulse. When tilted to his side a little -only to make sure he can breathe, Shiro tells himself, worrying about the freely bleeding head wound- he find out Keith isn’t breathing at all. The piece of metal on the floor is drenched in Keith’s blood, the bayard lays a few meters away. There is no way Keith could have defended himself from the ceiling. Not when Kosmo was on the other side of the building, doing its best to keep everyone else safe already. The wolf nudges Keith’s hand, trying to find the comforting pats it always gets when life still flows through his owner’s body.

It’s Kosmo’s soft whine that drags Shiro back to some sort of reality. A reality where the paladins are desperately asking for updates, a reality where the blade lays dead in his hand, just like Keith is dead on the floor. It’s a world he tries to tune out of again. The quicker he can forget the scene in front of him, the sooner he can try and convince himself that Keith is okay, like he’s always been.

Through the haze of his own mind, he hears Krolia groan behind him. Once again, the blade in his hand flickers.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, this is probably the only major character death I'll ever write
> 
> Come talk to me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Ahhuya) or [Tumblr](https://aulra.tumblr.com/)


End file.
